"People's Hero" Chen Wei: Charge ahead, cast a shield for the country

Chen Wei, winner of the national honorary title of "People's Hero"——

Charge ahead, forge a shield for the country

On July 28, 2021, a slanting sun reflected the sky of Beijing in the evening, and the afterglow stained the streets and alleys. People stopped and held up their phones to take pictures.

"Ding-dong!" Many people's mobile phones also received a message push: according to the latest news, the phase I clinical trial data of the recombinant neocorrection vaccine (adenovirus vector) for nebulization inhalation developed by Chen Wei's team was published online in the international authoritative medical journal "Lancet Infectious Diseases", becoming the first internationally published clinical trial results of the new crown vaccine mucosal immunity.

At this time, Chen Wei was still in the office, she looked at the sky, and couldn't help but recall that glorious moment that she would never forget——

September 8, 2020, Great Hall of the People, Beijing. At the National Commendation Conference for Fighting COVID-19, President Xi Jinping presented her with the National Honorary Title Medal of "People's Hero".

"This is the mission of the military, and this honor belongs to all comrades in the national army's epidemic prevention and control scientific research front!" In the past 30 years since joining the army, Chen Wei has been committed to the breakthrough of the core key technologies of the biosecurity defense emergency vaccine, the construction of the research and development system, and the creation and transformation and application of major varieties, and together with her comrades-in-arms, she has built a strong shield for national security and people's life safety.

"Only those who can rush forward at critical moments and be open-minded at critical junctures are true Communist Party members." In the fight against SARS, Wenchuan earthquake prevention, Beijing Olympic security and many other tasks, Chen Wei has always adhered to this life creed.

After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Chen Wei was appointed as the head of the military medical expert group. On January 26, 2020, the second day of the Chinese New Year, she led a team of military medical experts to leave Wuhan urgently.

"Prepare for the worst, come up with the best plan, and prepare for the longest possible battle." Chen Wei led the team to quickly establish a joint prevention, joint control, joint treatment and joint research mechanism with relevant units of the military and local governments around the pathogen transmission mutation of the new coronavirus, rapid detection technology, vaccine and antibody development, etc., and achieved obvious results.

Those anti-epidemic pictures are unforgettable. In just one day, Chen Wei led the expert group to complete the construction of the tent-style negative pressure laboratory and the testing platform, and she was the first to enter the experimental cabin; before the teammates performed the high-risk task, she checked whether the protective measures were in place one by one, encouraging everyone to "use science and technology to make retrograde become a counterattack"; in the overload operation of the front line, she often slept only three or four hours a day, and after more than three months, people lost a lot of weight...

Chen Wei's words and deeds deeply affected the comrades-in-arms and colleagues around her. The team of Jiang Tao of the nucleic acid testing team worked out safety operation specifications and emergency plans overnight; the teams of Cao Wuchun and Cao Cheng, who were responsible for epidemiological investigation and aerosol sampling, shuttled through major hospitals and key areas every day, never afraid to retreat. Under the inspiration of Chen Wei, two young scientific researchers joined the party in the line of fire and handed over qualified answers to the party and the people with actions and achievements.

Vaccines are the most powerful weapon in the fight against the epidemic. "China's vaccines must be independently developed by China." Chen Wei led the team to coordinate with the Beijing Rear Scientific Research Base and concentrated on emergency scientific research on vaccine development.

On March 16, 2020, the adenovirus vector vaccine developed by the scientific research team led by Chen Wei was approved to enter the clinical research stage. This is the world's first COVID-19 vaccine to enter clinical trials. On April 12, the vaccine was phase II clinical trials. The official website of the World Health Organization announced that this is the world's first phase II clinical trial of the new crown vaccine.

"Originally, we expected that the recruitment of volunteers during the 'lockdown' would be difficult, but we did not expect that in just 2 days, more than 5,000 people signed up." Among the volunteers of the phase II clinical trial, the youngest was an 18-year-old freshman student, who said that the phase I clinical trial did not catch up, and the phase II finally registered; the oldest Mr. Xiong, an 84-year-old veteran, said that he was very touched to see the expert group support Wuhan, taking advantage of the fact that his body was still tough and wanted to make a small contribution to the fight against the epidemic.

In Wuhan, many people support vaccine research and development with practical actions. A person in charge of a property company spontaneously organized a convoy to pick up vaccine test takers voluntarily, and in half a day, more than 20 people wore masks and took risks to drive to effectively ensure the early clinical trial; a police officer in charge of security found that the team experts were always busy until the early morning to return to their place of residence, and he specially sent Wuhan special snacks; a taxi driver, when he learned that they were a military medical expert group, refused to collect the fare anyway...

The great power of the people's war comes from the great strength of the people. The people's unconditional trust and support for the military medical expert group made Chen Wei more determined to let the vaccine be listed as soon as possible. Finally, on February 25, 2021, the vaccine was conditionally approved for marketing by the State Food and Drug Administration.

"Now it's all 'vaccinated', in fact, the vaccine can be vaccinated in other ways." Our team has been exploring the development of 'double non-vaccines', that is, non-injectable, non-cold chain vaccines, such as nebulized inhalation vaccines. Chen Wei never stopped charging.

Chen Wei introduced: "China's vaccine research and development level is in the world's first square, and we have full scientific and technological confidence in this. At present, our team is also actively conducting research on vaccine improvement for various mutant strains, hoping to achieve effective protection against mutated strains through the research and development of improved vaccines. ”

Independent innovation has never stopped. Faced with the risk challenges in the field of biosecurity in the future, Chen Weizheng is leading the team to continuously climb new heights.

(Li Xiaoming, reporter of this newspaper, Shao Longfei, special correspondent Wei Yin)

Source: People's Liberation Army Daily